Local units and Gauss sums. (Q1398951)

Let \(F\) be an abelian number field containing a primitive root of unity \(\zeta _ p\) with Galois group \(\Lambda = {\text{Gal}} (F/{\mathbb Q})\) over \(\mathbb Q\). For a fixed prime number \(p\), let \(F _ \infty\) denote the cyclotomic \({\mathbb Z} _ p\) extension of \(F\), where \({\mathbb Z}_ p\) denotes the ring of \(p\)-adic numbers. Let \(\Gamma = {\text{Gal}}(F_ \infty/F) \cong {\mathbb Z} _ p\) and fix a topological generator \(\gamma\) of \(\Gamma\). \textit{V. A. Kolyvagin} [The Grothendieck Festschrift, Collect. Artic. in Honor of the 60th Birthday of A. Grothendieck. Vol. II, Prog. Math. 87, 435--483 (1990; Zbl 0742.14017)] and \textit{K. Rubin} [Arithmetic algebraic geometry, Proc. Conf., Texel/Neth. 1989, Prog. Math. 89, 309--324 (1991; Zbl 0727.11044)] using Euler systems of Gauss sums determined the structure of\newline \(X_ \chi/(\gamma -1)X_ \chi\) as \(\vartheta _ \chi\)-modules. Here the notation is the following: \(X\) is the Iwasawa module given by the projective limit of the \(p\)-Sylow subgroup of the ideal class group of the fields \(F\subseteq F_ m\subset F_ \infty\), \(\chi\) is an odd character of \(\text{Gal}(F/ \mathbb Q)\) of order prime to \(p\) which is not the Teichmüller character \(\omega\) and \(\chi(p)\neq 1\neq \omega\chi ^ {-1}(p)\), \(\vartheta _ \chi\) is the extension ring of \({\mathbb Z} _ p\) which is generated by the values of \(\chi\), \(\underline {\vartheta _ \chi}\) is the \(\Lambda\)-module which is \(\vartheta _ \chi\) as an additive group on which \(\Lambda\) acts via \(\chi\) and \(X_ \chi = X\otimes _ {{\mathbb Z} _ p [\Lambda]} \underline{\vartheta _ \chi}\). The objective of this paper is to find the \(\vartheta _ \chi\)-module structure of \(X_ {\omega \chi ^ {-1}}/(\gamma - \kappa ( \gamma))X _ {\omega \chi ^ {-1}}\) where \(\kappa\) is the cyclotomic character. This is obtained in Theorem 2. As a corollary, the author obtains that this module is of cardinality \(| \mathfrak U ^ {(1)}_ \chi/ \mathfrak G_ \chi| \) where \(\mathfrak U ^ {(1)}_ \chi\) is the \(\chi\)-part of the semi-local units \(\prod _ {\mathfrak p\mid p} \mathfrak U ^ {(1)}_ {\mathfrak p}\) and \(\mathfrak G _ \chi\) is the \(\chi\)-part of the module of Gauss sums. \textit{H. Ichimura} and \textit{Y. Hachimori} [Manuscr. Math. 95, No. 3, 377--395 (1998; Zbl 0902.11044)] also studied the order of \(\mathfrak U ^ {(1)}_ \chi/\mathfrak G _ \chi\) for the characters \(\chi (p)=1\) or \(\omega \chi ^ {-1}(p)=1\). Finally, in the case \(F=\mathbb Q(\zeta _ p)\), \textit{K. Iwasawa} [Symp. Math. 15, Convegni 1973, 447--459 (1975; Zbl 0324.12007)] proved that \(\mathfrak U ^ {(1)} _ \chi = \mathfrak G _ \chi\) for every odd character \(\chi \neq \omega\) of \(\Lambda\) implies Vandiver's conjecture, that is, that the plus part of the \(p\)-class group of \(F\) is trivial.